"You would sacrifice your best friend for money!"
"Business is business, and I'm out for the stuff, as I told you, but there's no sense in letting it come to that. I don't want to do it, so don't be a fool!"
Symes groaned; she had attacked him in his most vulnerable spot, namely, his horror of scandal, of anything which would besmirch the name of which he was so inordinately proud. This pride was at once his strength and his weakness.
"And if I permit myself to be blackmailed—there is no use in mincing words—if I give you this contract in exchange for my wife's good name are you willing to consider every obligation wiped out?"
Her eyes flashed their triumph at this quick collapse of his stand.
"I am."
"And, furthermore, will you agree to discontinue your visits to my house?"
"Why?" There was hard bravado in the question.
"Your influence is not good, Dr. Harpe."
"What does Augusta say?"